Bike Ride

We went at 8:30am to breakfast at the campground.  It was somewhat in our honor, as it has been determined in year's past I am partial to sausage and gravy over biscuits.  It was a good turnout, and a lot of fun.  And delicious!
We have never seen as many hummingbirds in one place as there are here.  We think they are mostly ruby-throated and rufous, whatever they are, there are tons of them!

We then took off on the bike for a beautiful 265 mile ride up and over Wolf Creek Pass towards Alamosa through South Fork, to cut south just before Alamosa with the intention of going to see Pike's Stockade.  Of course Murphy is always lurking around.  I noticed on the way out the tire pressures were a bit low, no problem, we'll turn around and go to a gas station just up the road to get air.  The front went fine, but the air hose had a straight fitting which didn't fit on the rear stem, so instead of putting air in I managed to drop the pressure to 10 pounds!  I left Jan at the station and limped back to the campground to get my compressor which also had a STRAIGHT fitting!  Well Dick and Jerry saved me.  With air in the tires, I went back, picked up Jan and off we went.  Unfortunately the thunderstorms were building and building so we decided to bypass the stockade and continue down to Antonito, across to Chama, NM and back up to Pagosa.  All that and only the last 10-20 miles in the rain.  Between Antonito and Chama you go up and over La Manga Pass at 10,230' and Cumbres Pass at 10,022'.  There is a viewpoint looking down into the Conejos Valley which was beautiful!

Coming down off Cumbres Pass toward Chama, we rendezvoused with the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad train.  It operates between Chama, NM and Antonito, CO over the Cumbres Pass at 10,015' making it the highest point on a US passenger railroad.  This was engine #489, a K-36 built in 1925 in Philadelphia.  Pretty cool.

With the sky getting darker and darker we turned north at Chama to head for Pagosa.  We lost the battle about 20 miles out as it began to rain harder and harder.  Oh well, part of the joys of motorcycling.
It's funny, we have been talking more and more about getting rid of the bike in the next year, as it is seeming to take more and more of my attention and energy to feel safe.  Watching for gravel, slippery spots, cars trying their best to hit us, etc, and not being able to enjoy the ride and the scenery, but yesterday it was wonderful, we both had a great ride!  May have to reconsider.
Back to Cool Pines, a nice visit with our hosts and friends, Harvey and Jean.

Then a dinner of Olathe corn provided by Dick and Ann, a nice visit with them and several others, including Al and Marge, Sue and Terry, and a new couple to us, Gene and Pam.  It was a great cap to a great day.

Back to Durango

Actually just a quick trip to Durango.  Karen and Nancy left about 10am yesterday with maybe 10 supporters and well wishers.  Now Karen has also towed a vehicle amongst her accomplishments over these two weeks.  We were very sorry she had to leave early, but look forward to traveling together in the future.  Meanwhile Jan and I had received some mail with a couple checks we wanted to deposit, but the closest credit union service center was in Durango, so off we went.  And I noticed this morning, our credit union has online deposits now, great timing, oh well.  Nice drive, beautiful weather, and a good lunch at Serious Texas BBQ.  We had seen this restaurant with two locations in Durango, always packed, over the years but had never eaten there.  It was very good BBQ, great brisket, probably actually from Texas!
Got the motorcycle washed, and took it easy the rest of the day.  Had Dick and Ann over for dinner, a good time as usual.

Changes

Had a drawn out quiet morning.  Kinda nice.  After much rain last night the morning was cool and clear.  We just took our time, worked on Jan's photo site to set it up to sell some pictures, then I went back to take a shower, and the one sliding door wouldn't slide, so a small repair was in order. And, of course, it's never as small as you figure.  There was a screw going up into the bottom of the door that had to come out, so it was either take the door down, a larger project, or remove it from underneath a quarter turn at a time.  I went with the underneath method.  All is good now.
Karen was tied up all morning and will have to cut her trip short by a day, so Nancy and she will be leaving tomorrow morning.
I am going to try something new for me in this blog by adding some advertising to it.  I hope it will not be intrusive or off-putting.  Let me know what your opinions are, so I can evaluate its future.

Our non-hike

We all set out yesterday morning to do a nice hike up to Piedra Falls, but Karen had to cancel as she had a bunch of business to take care of on the phone.  Not a lot of coverage up in the mountains.  Unfortunately, the road had washed out about 2 miles from the trailhead. I know, I know, we should have hiked from there, but we were up for a 2 mile hike, not a 6 mile hike.  So we drove up to Williams Lake, one of Jan and my favorites.

Came back, picked up Karen and went to lunch at Kip's.  Busy, busy, I guess it's the last hurrah for a bunch of families before school starts in a week in many of the states.  After lunch we drove back up over Wolf Creek Pass to an overlook high above the ski resort.  It's at 11,750' with incredible views.  It's not that often that the three sisters get together so it's kind of special.

Back down to another overlook off the pass of the valley that runs into Pagosa Springs.

Karen has been telling us about a special Lima bean dish she has had at The Mayan Cafe in Louisville, KY.  In fact you could say she has obsessed about it and announced early on just prior to our trip that we would have to make this dish during our trip together.  It is an simple old southern Mexican dish that includes roasted pumpkin seeds.  We made them last night, and we all had to admit, including Jan who doesn't like lima beans, that it was quite delicious.  Rained for about 3-4 hours last night, but a cool bright morning.
My mom is having a few set backs right now with her cancer, so we all are thinking and praying for her.

Pagosa Springs

Yesterday we left Montrose, after a challenging exit from the campground.  I had mentioned it was a bit tight, well, we decided there wasn't enough room for either of us to pull around and out, so we each had to back out of our sites and the entrance onto the road.  Then the steps on CT's motorhome were feeling a bit rebellious, but we got them squared away.  We then headed out for Karen's graduation drive in the motorhome, of course she didn't know it at the time.  Heading east out of Montrose, we went through Cimarron, over a pass, through a narrow canyon, and out by Blue Mesa Lake.  That was her warmup for route 149 south through Lake City and Creede, and over the Slumgullion Pass, then to be followed by Wolf Creek Pass.  Here is the intrepid pilot clutching the wheel:)

Part way up Slumgullion Pass we stopped for lunch.  Probably would have been more comfortable for Karen if I hadn't mentioned how I hoped the emergency brakes would hold us on the hill and not let the motorhomes roll off the side.

Then down over the pass, through Lake City, a quick look at the headwaters of the Rio Grande,

through Creede, over Wolf Creek Pass and into Cool Pines in Pagosa Springs.  And what a big welcome we got!  Jan and Harvey were waiting for us, Dick and Ann were next, then Al and Marge, Jerry, Sue and Trish.  It's awfully nice to see our western "family".  We each got into our sites, and in just a few minutes, sister Nancy drove in.  She came up to join us for a few days before she and Karen have to head back home.  Ann and Dick had a wonderful dinner for us, good conversation, and an awesome pie for dessert!

See you later Rachel

Unfortunately Rachel had to go back home, so Jan and I took her up to Grand Junction at 3:30am so she could catch a flight.  No problem and got to drive the new Jeep at the same time.  After a small mishap with her cell phone, we headed back.  Along the road north of Delta and after the sun came up we saw what we thought at first was a wolf, but turned out to be a coyote stalking some antelope.  He chased them for a few minutes, then the antelope turned around and chased him away!  We went out a dirt road a bit to get a better view and stumbled upon the Escalante Overlook.

Never know what you may find!

Kicked my butt.

Both Jan and I, and Karen and Rachel went to the Black Canyon of Gunnison today.  We went to see the north rim, and K&R went to the south rim.  Just as I was thinking I was doing better and better with my fear of heights, the canyon brought it all back.  Just driving up the road to get to the North rim road entrance killed me.  The walls of the canyon are straight down, and about 1000'.  I couldn't handle it, so Jan stopped and looked and took pictures everywhere while I stayed in the Jeep.  Pretty pathetic.  Other than that, the ride, 150 miles around the canyon was superb.  Just to give you an idea.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, we had the Olathe corn last night.  It was delicious!

Montrose

We got off from Durango about 10:15, after a few stumbles.  Had a great drive up to Montrose.  We elected to go around rather than up through Silverton and Ouray on the Million Dollar Highway, as we were chicken, so we went through Mancos, Delores, and Ridgeway.  Karen is much more comfortable at the wheel now.  The trip even going "around" still had some very steep sections, both up and down, and was quite curvy and tight in several areas.  We fueled up in Montrose, the most expensive diesel on this trip so far, $3.999.  Then over to the campground, Montrose KOA, nice, but very tight, thinking we will have to back out to get out when we leave.  Karen rented a car here that turned out to be a 2011 Grand Cherokee Limited 4x4 with a V6, almost exactly the vehicle we are considering to buy in about 6 months.  Quite a gift as far as a "test drive" goes.  Jan and I took it for a ride even to include some off road stuff.  We are quite impressed with it, a very nice Jeep.  We had a very good dinner that included Olathe corn!  It is just coming in now and is some of the very best corn we've ever had, so we try to get it each trip out here.  I'm sure we'll scarf down many more ears before we head back east :)  Rachel has to head back home for that dirty word work, so she will be leaving the group on Sunday, but sister Nancy is going to come up and join us in Pagosa Springs on Monday for Karen's last week.  Off to the Black Canyon today!

Off road

What a great day!  We were off promptly at 6:30 am, Karen and Rachel in their, as it turns out quite capable, Ford Edge rental, and Jan and I in the Jeep.  North to Silverton, then up the trail to Animas Forks, about 8 miles north east of Silverton.  It is a somewhat preserved mining town where up to 450 people lived and toiled mining.  It was 44 degrees there at about 8am on July 21st, imagine what winter would be like.  Then further north by the remains of the Frisco mine.  We worked our way through the California Gulch going higher and higher up to California Pass.  A bit unnerving here and there but the views and weather were fantastic!

Then down to beautiful Como lake, still with ice!

Then back up and over Hurricane pass, through 8 foot snow banks to start our way back down to Silverton.  We found a great place to have a picnic lunch.  A superb view and since we had descended back down to only 12,250 ft, we all could breathe again :)

We continued our way back to Silverton, then Durango, back around 3pm.  We kinda chilled after that, returned the rental car to get ready for our move up to Montrose today.  No rush as it is only about 175 miles.  Off to more adventures.

Durango II

Rachel and I off early, 5:30am to go to Starbucks in town to work on our computers.  The wifi in the campground is very, very sssllllllooooooooooowwwwwww.  I needed to work on my schedule for August to how long I can stretch my vacation.  Did pretty good, off til the 19th, and fly a trip with a friend of mine.  45 days out of a 2 week vacation, not bad, huh?
Karen and Jan met us about 9:30, and Karen and Rachel headed out to Mesa Verde to see the cliff dwellings, and Jan and I walked around town, had lunch and looked at some superb binoculars.  We have a Swarovski spotting scope that is incredible, and we need another pair of good binoculars.  I've been doing a lot of research and the Swaro bins are very highly rated.  After looking through a 8.5x42 it is apparent why.  They are bright, sharp, amazing binoculars, a bit pricey though, but they'd last our lifetime sooo.......maybe I'm trying to justify them ;-)
After a good lunch, we went to pick up a couple items at the grocery store, and upon returning to our Jeep we see someone sideswiped us in the parking lot.  Not bad, drivable, but scraped down the side.  The vehicle that hit us was still parked right beside us.  An older couple came out and apologized, we exchanged info, talked to the cops, reported to our insurance companies, and we'll get it fixed after vacation.  We felt kind of sorry for the couple, as they were quite upset.  So other than taking several hours out of our day, no real harm done.  We plan to go offroading tomorrow so will let you know how we all make out.  Oh yeah, high of 85, low of 60.  Ooooh yeahhh!

Good day

It ended up that Karen and I made the big loop north through Silverton, Ouray, Ridgeway, Telluride, and back south through Delores to Durango.  240 miles of absolutely spectacular scenery.  Had a few sprinkles, but otherwise perfect.  Karen had never been there and was very impressed with the views, especially the ones straight down!  We had a very good lunch in Telluride.  Meanwhile Jan and Rachel went on a hike,

that was unfortunately cut short by thunder and lightning.  Even so they went 5.2 miles.  But each said it was very enjoyable.  

Things seem very busy around here, in fact Jan and Karen had planned to go horseback riding this week, but everything was booked solid, so they are planning to ride in Pagosa when we get there next week.

Saw quite a few rv's boondocking on our ride today, keeps me thinking about perhaps getting more solar panels for the roof so we would be able to boondock without running the generator so much.  A pretty expensive option so it will require a lot more study.

Durango

It has been a busy few days.  Karen got in Saturday night.  We had a great dinner at Nancy and CT's with Viv.  Sunday, while CT was playing in a golf tournament, the rest of us had an interesting brunch, then the girls all went shopping, visited Viv's apartment, all while I worked on my schedule for Aug.  Right now I'm off until the 18th, but I want to do better than that.  We all went out for an early fantastic mexican dinner, then back to the motorhomes so I could show Karen a few things in preparation for our drive to Durango.  She had never driven a big motorhome before.  Monday morning Karen and I went to the airport to pick up Karen's friend and copilot for the trip, Rachel.  Back to the motorhomes, last few things accomplished and off we go.  Jan rode with Karen and Rachel for the first few miles, just in case she had any questions or problems, but the trip was uneventful, scenic, and Karen did a great job even through a one lane section of construction.  Picked up their rental car, had a very lively dinner discussing all the different things to do in the next few days.  Rained off and on, but this morning it is beautiful, clear, and a delightful 60 degrees.

Albuquerque

Had a quick drive down from Santa Fe yesterday.  Nancy and CT happened to be at the campground when we arrived, as they were bringing their motorhome out of storage to set up on a site so it would be ready for Karen and Rachel to use for the next two weeks.  After a nice lunch we went over to see Viv's new place.  Very nice.  She has a bright roomy apartment in what looks to be a very nice facility.  She seems happy with it.  Obviously, after losing Vern, it is a big adjustment, living by herself in a new place.  She is starting to socialize and has met several people so far.  If she can bring herself to join in more activities, I think it will pay off, and she'll be able to meet more people and make some friends.  We had a good visit and a tasty dinner.  Nancy and CT's place sure is nice, comfortable and homey.  Karen comes in tonight.  We are anticipating a good time as we travel together to Durango, Montrose, and Pagosa Springs.

Fire

This view of the Alamosa fire is from our campground.  You can see the smoke blowing off the the east, the right side of the picture.
We had a good day.  We set out to go to Bobcat Bites for their famous green chili cheeseburger, but unfortunately, we couldn't find it.  Even the GPS had it in the wrong place, turns out we turned around about a 1 mile short of the place.  So we punted and went to another popular place, Harry's Roadhouse.  Quite good, eclectic food, and pretty packed.
We came back, took a walk, chilled out and enjoyed the weather.  High of 79!!!  Woohoo!  Supposed to go down to about 62 tonight.  Off to the Pantry again tomorrow morning for breakfast, then down to Albuquerque to see Nancy, CT, and Viv.  Will get to see Viv's new digs.

Santa Fe

What a great ride.  It is so exciting to us heading west and seeing the mountains.  It tells us that we made it! Also we have a little contest each time we head west to see who will see the first antelopes.  Haha, I won!  We are in the Santa Fe Skies campground, and we have tremendous views.  In fact we can see the forest fires that are plaguing the Alamosa area.  The smoke goes to the east for miles and miles.  Right now it is blowing about 25 mph, bad enough here, but can you imagine trying to fight a fire in it?
Just got back from a superb dinner at one of our favorites in Santa Fe, the Pantry, not fancy, but incredible food.  The Chili Rellenos and the Carne Adovada were fantastic!
Santa Fe, like most of Texas seems busy and bustling!  Lots of construction, and lots of people.

Amarillo

506 miles today into Amarillo.  We had a good drive.  It's always interesting to watch the changes in topography as you travel.  We started in rolly, tree covered, greenness, and transitioned to less and less green and more and more brown as things dried out.  Then it became flatter and flatter, as our visibility went up.  Until we got close to Amarillo where you could see for miles and miles.  Also we started at about 300' elevation and climbed up to 3300'.  Luckily we remembered to let our bed down.  We have a Select Comfort air bed you have to be careful with as you climb in elevation.  We have friends who forgot and as they climbed up to high elevation.....pop went the bed!  We've come 1185 miles so far, through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and of course Texas.  It's interesting, Texas for the most part seems prosperous, businesses booming, people active, restaurants and hotels busy.  Very different from the others, especially MS and LA.
We got our annual oil change and lube service at Speedco in Amarillo.  It's funny to come to west Texas to get our service done, but it's exactly what we have done the last three years.  And, of course, had to go to the Big Texan for dinner.

Off to Amarillo

Up early.  We have a 505 mile day today to Amarillo, all but 8 miles off the interstate.  We much prefer to be on back roads if possible.  We're going to go up north around the Dallas- Fort Worth area through a little town of Henrietta, TX where friends of our from Pagosa Springs live.  Anxious to get a glimpse as we go by.  We plan to get an oil change and service at Speedco in Amarillo.  Funny, this will be the third year we've gone hundreds of miles to get it done there!  Had a great visit with Kelly, Todd, and the grandkids.  I wasn't able in the the time we had to get Faith riding her bike, but her Mom and Dad will work with her and I'm sure she be riding sans training wheels soon.  We're very glad  they seem so happy in Longview.  The kids are going to start swimming lessons in a couple weeks.

Names

I've done some thinking about posting names, and as you've noticed I've been only using initials.  As Jan reminded me, names are all over Facebook, so I am going back to change the initials to names, but I still will not include last names.

Grandkids

Our grandkids, Faith & Christian spent the night with us last night.  We had a nice visit yesterday with Todd's parents.  Then worked on riding the bike without training wheels.  I think Grandpa thought it would be a mite quicker process than it's going to be, that compounded by the fact it is well over 100 outside!  At 4 and 5 now the kids are great!  We're having a super time with them.  Going to take them swimming this afternoon.

Texas!

Well, we got to Longview, Texas yesterday about 3pm.  Into a very nice campground, Fernbrook.  It's about 1 year old, all concrete pads, green grass, big sites, nice amenities, well kept, and very nice people.  We took the trailer and all the stuff from storage over to our daughter's, got it unloaded, and returned.  We had a nice visit, got to see their new house, and most importantly got to see our grandchildren!  4 and 5, great ages, turning into little people, and thanks to their parents, absolute joys.  I was given quite a challenge though, I'm to teach my granddaughter to ride a bike without training wheels.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Mississippi

Made it to Meridian, MS about 6pm eastern.  We want to stay on eastern time so we can get off fairly early in the morning to get to our daughter's to see the grandkids, and of course our son-in-law, and to unload the trailer!  Jan did a good job pulling the trailer, but it was lonely in the motorhome without her.  A couple sprinkles of rain, but other than that good weather, but hot.  But not as hot as it's gonna be in Texas.  Calling for 102!  Westbound and down.

Off today!

Yesterday we rented a trailer and loaded tons of stuff from our storage unit to take to our daughter's in Texas.  A lot of it is for her and a lot of it is going in a yard sale.  Who knows, maybe we will be able to get rid of the storage unit some day!  Jan is getting her hair cut, then off we go.  Kayaks are loaded and all the little chores are done.  Can't describe how good it feels to leave and get on the road.

Almost ready to leave

We are getting close to leaving for vacation, doing some of the last few chores.  We loaded the motorcycle on the lift, got it tied down, checked the motorhome's tire pressures, oil, and coolant levels.  After we sat and watched a bunch of our neighbors leaving after the holiday weekend, we definitely learned something.  We had never bothered with cleaning the faucet we hooked up to for water at any campgrounds all these years, and we've been very lucky and not had any problems.  But we ended up watching several people today unhooking their sewer and water, using their fresh water hose to clean out the sewer line, AND putting the sewer hose right up to the faucet to rinse out the hose!  From now on we will be using a strong Clorox solution to sanitize the faucets.  Tomorrow we pick up a trailer to pack up a bunch of stuff to take to Texas to our daughter's house for either her to use or put in a yard sale.  It occurred to us that the money we spent renting the storage unit for 7 years could've easily paid for anything in there.  So we are determined to get it cleaned out!  We had a horrendous storm come through last night that tore off the awnings on two RV's.  We were lucky and had no damage.

New Month

Hard to believe it's July already.  I'm in Las Vegas tonight, then off to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow, back Sunday.  Do a charter on the 4th, and then we're off on the 7th, westbound and down!  We've also started to lay out rough estimates going forward.  Latest is I'm going to work til the end of Feb, then down to Florida for a few months, out to Texas for a week or so, over to Atlanta to visit friends and do doctors, then up to Louisville for a month or so, then up to Vermont to visit friends, through Maine and Canada to PEI, then work our way back, through Louisville for T-day, then to Atlanta, then back to Florida.  Very rough right now, but it gives us something to aim for.  Right now our view is on Colorado this summer, to get out of GA for awhile!